The present invention relates to lasers beams, laser systems and the like, and more particularly to a scanning, self-referencing interferometer for use with a laser system.
In some applications, generating or providing a laser beam that is substantially free of distortions, fringes and other anomalies or defects may be highly desirable. Phase shifts associated with the fringes of a laser beam can result in such distortions, loss of power and laser efficiency. The phase shifts may be caused by the environment through which the laser beam may need to pass or by other factors. By determining the phase shifts that may be associated with a reference laser beam, a main beam may be corrected for such phase shifts to provide a higher quality beam. Current methods and systems for determining phase associated with a laser beam require extensive calculations over a set of stationary fringes associated with a laser beam. During the time period for determining the phase and what correction may be needed to provide a high-quality beam, the environment may change and an entirely different phase and correction may be needed.